The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-04-07
rhomas Snnare-Opening CoHEeri


This evening, for the first time, the
Royal Hawaiian Band will play at
Thomas Square. There is history con-
nected with this public reservation
which may be briefly told. Lord George
Poulet, for reasons which seemed sui
fcient for himself at the time, took pos
session of these Islands on behalf OF his
Sovereign the Queen of England, and
organized local Government. His SUI
perior officer, Admiral Thomas, ON hear
ing of the affair sailed to Honolulu, and
lost no time in undoing the act OF his sub
ordinate. On July 81, 1S43, Admiral
Thomas saluted the Hawaiian flag, ack-
nowledging the independence and SOW
ereignty of the Hawaiian Kingdom as
fully and freely as his Government had
done previously by convention. Adj
n1iral Thomas was ignorant OF this, how
ever, and without doubt the independ-
ence of this country is practically due
to his action. His memory is therefore
revered, and the spot of ground upon
the plains where the ceremony OF re-
storing the Hawaiian flag took place was
most properly reserved for public use.
But events move slowly in this King
dom, except in the way OF contracting
debt, and for long time Thomas Square
was only name. In 1873 it was fenced,
ploughed, sown in oats and algaroba
seeds The oats were harvested, the
algarobas grew; but that was all. The
entire area was soon overgrown by nihau
burr. In 1882 the Legislature appropri-
ated small sum of money for the i'm
provement of Thomas Square, and every
session since then money, lin scant supply,
has been voted for the same object.
Very fortunately the control of Thomas
Square was given to the Hon. A. S. Cleg-
horn, whose knowledge of landscape
gardening is only equalled by his desire
to beautify all public parks and grounds
about Honolulu.
The square of seven acres had been
laid out to scale in circles and half cir
cles by the Hon. Robt. Stirling, and Mr.
Cleghorn worked upon these plans.
Walks were laid out; valuable trees,
Towering shrubs and flowers were
planted, and an untiring supervision
was given to the work, until to-day
Thomas Square, at trifing expenditure
of money, is one of the most agreeable
places of public resort to be found any
where in the world compressed into the
same limited space on dead level.
But this did not suffice. Mr.. Cleg-
horn, when the grounds had been suf-
fciently improved, went! around among
his friends in the city and raised suf-
icient money to build grand stand for
the band and provide seats for several
hundred people in the grounds. The
grand stand was erected by Mr.. F. Will
helm, and is in every respect an improve
ment upon that in Emma Square 1t is
about double the size of the latter, and
has a ceiling and sounding board
There are thirty-four seats on the
ground, ten of which are iron, recently
imported from England. The remainder
are of wood and were made to order
here. They are fixtures. The seats
were placed in position yesterday Hon.
Mr.. Cleghorn personally superintendent
the distribution OF the seats, which af-
ford shade during the day and an OPP
portunity of enjoying the music by
night. As convenient and agreeable
resort for all classes of citizens Thomas
Square will be found unrivalled. A
wide path, close to the outer fence on its
four sides is being opened, so that pedes-
TRANS may enjoy the luxury of an agree
able promenade instead of walking along
the dusty road.
The Royal Hawaiian Band, as already
stated, plays at Thomas Square for the
first time this evening. We bespeak
large and enthusiastic attendance. Only
one word of warning: do not touch plant
or flower. These are grown for public
qualification and should be held sacred.
Let persons in charge of children re-
this.